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David Arquette of “Scream” fame gets real about the state of his career in a new documentary. | Rich Polk/Getty Images
Cameras follow his return to wrestling and the reactions of his wife, kids and ex — Courteney Cox.
In 1996, David Arquette was on the cover of the Vanity Fair Hollywood issue, alongside other rising stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, Will Smith and Benicio Del Toro.
Within five years, Arquette had become more of a novelty celebrity than a respected actor — known for his marriage to Courteney Cox, playing the goofball Sheriff Dwight “Dewey” Riley in the “Scream” movies, some very public bouts with alcoholism and taking an Andy Kaufman-esque deep dive into the world of professional wrestling, even briefly holding the WCW title in 2000.
Cut to nearly two decades later, with Arquette embarking on a quixotic journey at the age of 48 to return to wrestling in the strange belief it will resuscitate his dormant acting career. It’s all chronicled in the documentary “You Cannot Kill David Arquette,” premiering Wednesday at the ChiTown Movies drive-in (with a live Zoom Q&A with the actor) and opening Aug. 28 on demand.
“It’s a revealing and vulnerable documentary and I let people into my life,” said Arquette in a recent phone conversation. “It captured my life at this point where a lot of things were coming to a head. I had this pattern of beating myself up for years. … I was doing stuff that could kill me … but I feel better now, like I figured a lot of stuff out.”
The film posits Arquette’s wrestling career in the early 2000s was the primary cause of his fall from Hollywood grace, but Arquette (now appearing in the grisly social-media satire “Spree”) said it was a myriad of factors.
“A lot of [it had to do] with personal behavior choices and not being as selective in picking roles as some people are. I don’t want to blame wrestling or ‘Scream.’ … There’s also getting your picture taken outside of [nightclubs] after entertaining [people] all night, being on TMZ. … Plus, to give Hollywood its props, it’s a brutal business and they will get you, they will attack you.”
The documentary follows Arquette as he trains in Virginia and in Mexico and eventually in Los Angeles, wrestling in front of tiny crowds and getting slammed and pummeled and sustaining injuries including two broken ribs. Were there moments when he realized this was madness and he should put a stop to it?
“There were moments like that,” he said. “There is an element to training for wrestling … that gets you prepared to take punishment to your body on a weekly basis. But I was determined …read more
Source:: Chicago Sun Times
